24/7 Trauma and Biohazard Cleanup in Napavine, WA

Napavine is a city in Lewis County, Washington, nicknamed "The City on Top of the Hill" for its perch on a large hill beside Interstate 5, roughly halfway between Seattle and Portland.

The first known pioneer family at the site, the Cuttings, arrived in 1851, and Horace Pinto arrived in 1852 and set up a general store.

Scottish immigrant James Urquhart purchased the Cutting family's claim in 1853 and later platted the community in 1883.

The name Napavine is credited to Horace Pinto's "Napawyna," said to derive from an Indigenous word, "Napavoon," meaning "small prairie."

The Northern Pacific Railroad arrived in late 1872 and built a sawmill, launching a timber boom that by 1908 had nine lumber and shingle mills operating in town alongside four general stores and three hotels.

Napavine was incorporated on November 21, 1913, after residents voted for incorporation that February, and A. M. McKinley served as its first mayor.

Napavine's Northern Pacific depot stood at the highest elevation on the railroad's line between Portland and Seattle; passenger service lasted until 1960, and the station closed permanently in April 1968.

In 1902, escaped Oregon outlaws Harry Tracy and David Merrill fought a duel just outside Napavine in which Merrill was killed.

Napavine's population grew from 1,361 in 2000 to 1,766 in 2010 and 1,888 in 2020, and the 2020 census counted 653 households in the city.

Napavine today functions mainly as a bedroom community for the Centralia–Chehalis area and for Olympia.